U.S. presidential election (4): the first Republican to declare
So the first Republican to formally declare his bid to become the party’s candidate in next year’s US presidential election is Ted Cruz, a hard-line conservative. As this piece in the “New York Times” puts it:
“Those who have known him for years say Mr. Cruz always seemed both driven to advance and savvy in his tactics, and very likely to seize a politically expedient moment for personal gain.
But what has surprised them most, many said, is watching his evolution from a practical, Ivy League-educated lawyer and Republican insider into the Tea Party firebrand who helped orchestrate a strategy that ultimately shut down the federal government for 16 days in 2013.
What seems clear now is that at least in strategic terms, Mr. Cruz sees his opening in 2016 as being the most conservative contender in the presidential field, bar none.”